Michigan Technological University won two more national championships and they didn’t happen on the ice or in the classroom. Paul Mayes won the dual slalom and downhill events at the 2012 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike Championships, held Oct. 20-21 in Angel Fire, N.M.
Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: November 1, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Dr. Robert F. Klie, University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Robert F. Klie is a widely recognized expert in Z-contrast imaging, electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and in-situ experiments. Dr. Klie is an Associate Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has pioneered the in-situ heating and cooling experiments using atomic Z-contrast imaging and EELS of oxide grain boundaries, heterogeneous catalysts, as well as semiconductor thin-films.
Dr. Klie has authored over 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited over 1400 times since 1998, and has an h-index of 20. As a scientist, Dr. Klie has over 10 years of experience in academic and industrial research, including his current appointment at UIC and previously Brookhaven
National Laboratory. Recently, Dr. Klie was the PI on a grant to purchase an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), which has been installed at UIC last year. Currently, the JEOL JEMARM200CF is the highest resolution 200 kV STEM in the United States which allows for in-situ experiments, and provides 68 pm spatial, as well as 0.35 eV energy resolution.
Title: Chemical analysis with sub-Å resolution: T he power and challenges of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy
The last few years have seen a paradigm change in (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, (S)TEM, with unprecedented improvements in both spatial and spectroscopic resolution being realized by aberration
correctors, cold-field emission guns and monochromators. The spatial resolution now extends to the subangstrom
level, while the spectroscopic resolution has reached the sub-100 meV regime. In-situ stages
have further extended the temperature range where atomic-resolution can be achieved between 10 K and
1,000 K. These instrumentation developments have brought notable successes in materials analysis, in
particular for interfacial, catalysis and thin-film studies. However, they have also challenged the established
experimental protocols and our fundamental understanding of both imaging and spectroscopy in the STEM.
In this presentation, examples of where the new instrumentation has been successfully used to address materials physics issues in nanoscale systems will be described, including magnetic transitions in oxide thin films, pn-junctions in semiconductor nanowires, and promoter diffusion in heterogeneous nanocatalysts.
Furthermore, the challenges associated with operating these new STEMs for reliable quantitative imaging and spectroscopy will be discussed. Finally, I will present a perspective on the future developments in STEM analysis.
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From a Tech Today article October 26, 2012
Andrea Walvatne, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student at Michigan Tech, is the national grand prize winner in the annual Stilettos to Steel Toes essay contest, sponsored by Schlumberger and endorsed by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Schlumberger is a leading international oilfield services provider.
Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 25, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Professor Robert J. Santoro, the George L. Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
Robert J. Santoro, George L. Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering, received his Ph.D. degree in physics from Boston College in 1975. He then joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University as a research engineer. In 1978, he joined the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Washington, D.C., where he remained until 1986. At NBS, Dr. Santoro developed research efforts in the areas of particle formation in flames, laser tomography, and spray combustion research. In 1986 he joined the Pennsylvania State University as an associate professor of mechanical engineering and was promoted to full professor in 1990. In 1994, Dr. Santoro was appointed to the position of Director of the Propulsion Engineering Research Center and promoted to Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2000. In 2003 Dr. Santoro was named as the George L. Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering and elected a Fellow of the ASME. In 1985 he was awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for his research in soot particle formation. Dr. Santoro is also active in the AIAA, ASME and Combustion Institute where he has organized numerous sessions for national meetings. He serves as an Associate Editor for Combustion, Science and Technology and is on the editorial advisory board of the Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. His research interests include studies of rocket propulsion, rocket-based combined cycle engines, combustion of coal-based fuel, soot formation in flames, liquid spray combustion, laser diagnostics, gas turbine combustion, combustion instability, and chemical kinetics.
Title: Soot formation studies using JP-8 and JP-8 surrogate fuels
Design methodologies for practical combustion systems using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) tools have been a focus for fundamental and applied research for at least three decades. One of the challenges faced in developing CFD design tools lies in how to simulate the chemical kinetics of practical fuels that contain hundreds components. Consequently, development of surrogate fuels containing a small number of components that replicate the combustion of practical fuels is an active research topic. Recently, a team of researchers from Princeton University, University of Connecticut, University of Illinois at Chicago and Penn State University completed a five year study to develop a methodology for making a surrogate fuel to simulate the combustion of the current fuel used by the U.S. Air Force, JP-8. This methodology relies on matching four parameters: H/C ratio, molecular weight, derived cetane number and sooting threshold index of the practical fuel. The composition of the surrogate fuel includes several families of hydrocarbon compounds: n-alkanes, branched-chain alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatics. Concurrently, chemical kinetic models that include oxidation chemistry for the surrogate components were developed by some of the team members. In this talk, the emphasis will be on the work done at Penn State to simulate the sooting characteristics of the surrogate fuels. In addition, the basis for the selection of four parameters used to identify suitable surrogate components and results from the chemical kinetic modeling studies will be presented.
Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 18, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Dr. Arnold Lumsdaine, Fusion Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dr. Lumsdaine currently works as the Senior Research and Development Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Fusion Energy Division. He serves in a lead engineering and project management role for the design and analysis of a variety of components related to fusion energy research projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Lumsdaine received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has served as an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, and was the Research and Development Manager for the Nanomechanics Operations of Agilent Technologies and MTS Nano Instruments. He has over 40 publications in the fields of fusion technology, nanomechanics, smart structures, design optimization and vibration damping.
Title: Making a Star on Earth – the Future of Fusion Energy
Abstract
Nuclear fusion is the primary source of energy in the universe, powering all active stars including our sun. The realization of commercially viable fusion power would essentially end the current societal problems of energy supply (greenhouse gas emission, release of other pollutants, fuel importation from hostile nations, non-renewable supply, storage of long-term radioactive waste, risk of runaway reaction or meltdown, risk of proliferation of nuclear materials). But the promise of achieving power from a controlled fusion reaction has thus far been elusive. The ITER magnetic fusion device, currently under construction in Cadarache, France, is the largest scientific experiment ever undertaken, and promises to produce 500 megawatts of output power and only 50 megawatts to operate.
This presentation will review:
– the basic concepts in magnetic confinement fusion (“what is it?”);
– the challenges in worldwide energy supply (“why do we need it?”);
– the history of magnetic confinement fusion and the status of the ITER experiment (“where are we now?”);
– the major issues that remain to be solved to achieve commercial fusion power, and the role that engineers will play in solving these issues (“what’s next, and what can I do about it?”).
Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 11, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Dr. Alexander Yarin, University of Illinois Chicago, Multiscale Mechanics and Nanotechnology Laboratory
Professor Alexander L. Yarin received his PhD in 1980, his DSc (Habilitation) in 1989. He was a Senior Research Associate at The Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow from (1977-1990). In 1990 he became a Professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology and is currently with the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since 2008, Dr. Yarin has been a Fellow of the Center for Smart Interfaces at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.
Professor Yarin is the author of 2 books, 10 book chapters, approximately 210 research papers, and 5 patents. He is one of the three co-Editors of “Springer Handbook of Experimental Fluid Mechanics” (2007) and an Associate Editor of the journal “Experiments in Fluids”.
Title: From Electrospinning
to Thermal Management in Microelectronics, from Co-Electrospinning to Nanofluidics
Abstract
In the first part, a novel method of enhancement of drop and spray cooling for microelectronic, optical and radiological elements and server rooms, which require extremely high heat fluxes, is discussed. The key idea of the method is to cover the heat transfer surfaces with electrospun nonwoven polymer or metal-plated “thorny devil” nanofiber mats. The experiments revealed that drop impacts on nanotextured surfaces of nanofiber mats produce spreading similar to that on the impermeable surfaces. However, at the end of the spreading stage the contact line is pinned and drop receding is prevented. All the mats appeared to be dynamically permeable for coolant drops. The enhanced efficiency of drop cooling in the presence of nanofiber mats observed experimentally results from full elimination of receding and bouncing of the drops, characteristic of the current spray cooling technology. Therefore, the drops evaporate completely, and the large cooling potential associated with the latent heat of evaporation is more fully exploited. This is paradoxical: the best cooling can be provided by a “furry overcoat”! Using this approach very high cooling rates of about 1 kW/cm2 were achieved and the anti-Leidenfrost effect was discovered.
In the second part, carbon nanotubes are synthesized and self-assembled via co-electrospinning, emulsion electrospinning, or template electrospinning and subsequent carbonization. Then, controlled flows through macroscopically long (~1cm) carbon nanotubes are demonstrated. It is shown that a higher flow rate of liquid in a bi-layer gas-liquid system can be achieved as compared to the case when the same liquid flows through the same tube subjected to the same pressure drop and occupies the whole bore. This means that it is possible to release more liquid than predicted by the Poiseuille law, even though in the bi-layer flow liquid does not occupy the whole crosssection.
This paradoxical result is related to the fact, that the less viscous gas layer can flow much faster than the underlying liquid layer and entrain the latter via a significant shear stress. This quasi-giant-slip phenomenon occurs in relatively large nanotubes (of the order of 500 nm dia.) where the no-slip condition holds with sufficient accuracy.
This phenomenon can be beneficial in reverse osmosis systems. In addition, parallel bundles of these carbon nanotubes are used as nanoreactors to polymerize sufficiently monodisperse thermo-responsive nanoparticles of the order of 400 nm dia. at the rate of 107 particles per sec. Nanoparticles of this size are therapeutically beneficial and can be used as drug carriers. Controlled release from them modulated by temperature variation was demonstrated.
Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 4, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Marie Cleveland. Worldwide Corporate Account Manager,
FedEx
This year, Marie won the Five Star Award, FedEx’s highest award within the entire FedEx organization. Currently, Marie’s position is a Worldwide Corporate Account Manager responsible for 6 accounts bringing in about $60 million in revenue per year to FedEx. She has broad international experience, having traveled in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and has expertise in cultural issues associated with international business. In 2010, she won the highest sales award called the President’s Club. Prior to this award, she won Corporate Account Executive of the Year and has been the recipient of both the Ambassador’s Club Award, Largest Corporate Account Close Award and the elusive Wall of Fame Award. Before moving into corporate sales, Marie has been recognized several times as “Account Representative of the Year” and was also the “Administrative Region of the Year” winner. She has been with FedEx for 24 years.
Marie graduated from Michigan Tech in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration co-oping with GM for most of her student career. Marie is currently serving as Vice President of the Michigan Tech Chicago Chapter Alumni Association. She serves as a volunteer working in the Chicago area to recruit students for Michigan Tech. Marie is also an Alumni Association Gold Carpet and Life Member, a member of the Michigan Tech Presidential Council of Alumnae and the McNair Society.
She is huge on giving back and is active in her community as treasurer for her neighborhood, volunteering at church and is president of the North County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans which was able to assist in raising about $900,000 for the local community last year.
Title: Promote your Work with a Powerful Presentation
-Gain skills to make your presentation even better
-How to capture your audience’s attention
-What to do when you get off track in a presentation
-Tips for a smooth presentation on and off the screen